In order to remain competitive in many areas of manufacturing, it is often necessary to automate. This automation is accomplished by many mechanical devices. A very common device that has many applications in automation is a gripper. Commonly, a gripper is a mechanical device that has parallel fingers that open and close to grasp an item. One such gripper device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,509,783 entitled "Smart Hand" and issuing to Ionescu on Apr. 9, 1985, which is herein incorporated by reference. Because the fingers are cantilevered in order to grasp an item, it is often difficult to maintain the necessary precision for a specific application. In many instances, the parts used in assembling the gripper must be manufactured to very close tolerances in order to obtain the necessary precision in gripping. This is often difficult and costly to accomplish. Additionally, through time and use, the precision of the gripper may be lost due to wear. In many gripper designs, it is difficult to maintain centrality in the movement of the fingers when one of the fingers strikes an item to be grasped before the other finger. Therefore, the fingers may not close simultaneously or equally, causing inaccuracies in positioning or placement of the item. Therefore, there is a need to improve the precision of gripper devices.